The Present Disclosure relates generally to a heat sink, a cooling module and a coolable electronic board that can cool various heat-generating bodies. More particularly, the Present Disclosures relates to a heat sink, a cooling module and a coolable electronic board that, by effectively decreasing the temperature gradient in the base without losing durability or reliability, reduces temperature increases in the heat-generating body (or, more specifically, increases the efficiency of cooling the heat-generating body).
The Present Disclosure relates to an electronic device able to not only attach an electronic component, primarily of a card shape, to the electronic device, but also, through connecting to the electronic component, to concentrate, within a device, and then dissipate effectively to the outside, heat that is generated within the device, through conveying, to a heat-dissipating portion that is provided within the electronic device, heat that is produced. Note that this “card shape” refers to a shape with specific outer dimensions and thickness, and can be installed easily into an electronic device, and includes a variety of shapes commonly understood to be “card-shaped.”
A variety of electronic components that engender heat production are used in many electronic devices. In such electronic components, there is a variety of negative effects when the use environment becomes hotter than a specific temperature, such as the instability of normal operations, decreased reliability and the like, resulting in a performance reduction of the electronic device or manufacturing equipment itself. Technologies such as heat sinks and heat pipes have been developed and used long ago in order to suppress, through cooling, the heating from the electronic components. On the other hand, in portable electronic devices, there has been a need for a general specification for installing card-shaped electronic components in order to record video and audio data electronically, and to exchange with other equipment.
In recent years, there has additionally been an increase in the data transfer rate between electronic devices, memory cards and the like, accompanying increases in capacities of memories, improvements in writing and reading performance, improvements in the portable terminal performance and the like. Accordingly, there have been concerns that the amount of heat produced by the electronic components will get even larger, accompanying the increases in the amount of data transferred, resulting in instability in the operations of the devices.
Conventionally, there have been proposals for technologies wherein enclosures provided for card-shaped electronic components are mounted in the electronic devices and provided with heat-dissipating portions, so that when the card-shaped electronic component is inserted into a card case, the electronic component and the heat-dissipating portion make thermal contact, to dissipate, from the heat-dissipating portion, the heat that is produced by the card electronic component. Examples may be found in Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-222437; Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-242946; and Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-116564.
The '437 Application discloses a connector for a PC card wherein a movable frame is actuated when the PC card is inserted into the connector for the PC card, causing the PC card to make contact with the heat-dissipating portion that is provided in the connector for the PC card. The '946 Application discloses a technology wherein the inserted PC card makes contact with a heat-dissipating portion that is provided in the housing of a connector for the PC card. The '564 Application discloses a connector for a card having a structure wherein a heat-dissipating member that can rotate in order to promote the dissipation of heat of the inserted card is provided, where the rotation of the heat-dissipating member causes contact with the card when the card is inserted.
In the disclosures above, the connectors or sockets themselves, into which electronic components are installed, such as connectors for PC cards, are provided with the heat-dissipating portions. PC cards are often used in electronic devices that are used on a desk, such as, computers and the like. Card-shaped electronic components, such as PC cards having a relatively large size, such as PCMCIA-standard components, can be used in such electronic devices.
On the other hand, in conventional portable electronic devices, there are demands for even electronic components to be made smaller and thinner, because of the demands for making the electronic devices themselves smaller and thinner. In addition, due to the demands for higher speeds in exchange of data between electronic devices, and demands for higher capacities, there is a tendency for an increased number of terminals in the electronic devices. Sockets and connectors for the installation of small electronic devices that have a high number of terminals have extreme problems in terms of the provision, thereon, of heat-dissipating members provided with adequate surface area, as in the disclosures above. In addition, it is difficult to secure the space for mounting heat-dissipating members in such electronic devices.
On the other hand, in some electronic devices heat-dissipating members are often provided in advance in order to cool the heat that is produced by the processing device (for example, a central processing device (“CPU”)) or the power supply portion that is included internally. For example, heat sinks, heat pipes, cooling fans, graphite sheets and the like are mounted within the electronic components. In such a situation, the heat from the installed electronic component, that has had to be made smaller and thinner, preferably is dissipated through these heat-dissipating members. However, in the conventional technology there has been a problem in that such heat dissipation has not been performed adequately due to the heat-dissipating portion being provided on the connector or socket itself.